Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros

Friday, April 14, 2017

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When you think of Greece, you may think of many things — warm Mediterranean weather, the Parthenon, perhaps — but I think of feta cheese. Greece is most definitely the motherland for this salty, tangy, oh-so crumbly cheese. Go visit the cheese aisle of ...

GREECE — The visiting Marcus Whitman girls lacrosse team had eight different players find the back of the net as they picked up a 15-6 win over Greece Athena-Odyssey on Thursday. Emily Thompson led the way for Whitman as she scored four goals. Abbie ...

ATHENS, GREECE – A state-of-the-art media studio facility is the new addition to the ACS Athens (American Community Schools of Athens) campus, a unique element […] The post ACS Athens Opens the Suheil Sabbagh Media Studio appeared first on The National Herald.

Just in time for summer travel, Emirates announces another two-for-one sale. How to book: Visit the Emirates special website for this deal to view all of the details, including additional options like flying in business class from $4,998 for two.

Michael Evangelista-Ysasaga is a Mexican American living in Fort Worth, Texas. His grandparents immigrated to the United States, undocumented, in the 1930s. For the past 10 years, he has lectured on immigration reform across the U.S., including at the Fort Worth Rotary Club. And now, he’s leading the Latino-owned U.S. military and government contracting firm PennaGroup in creating and submitting a design proposal for President Donald Trump’s controversial proposed border wall. “I will build a great wall,” Trump declared in June 2015, while announcing his candidacy for president. “And nobody builds walls better than me, believe me.” At the time, the statement seemed to many like an absurd proclamation that, especially coming from a former reality TV star, would likely never actually come to fruition. For PennaGroup CEO Evangelista-Ysasaga, Trump’s vision for a border wall felt less like a vague possibility than an inevitable reality after his election. “We’re a Latino-owned firm,” he told The Huffington Post in an interview, specifying that about 80 percent of his workers are Mexican-American, the descendants of immigrants. “We had to do a lot of soul-searching when all of this was first happening.” In response to a solicitation issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in March, various contracting firms began proposing bids for the 1,000-mile, $21 billion wall project. CBP outlined the requirements for effective wall proposals in a contract issued on its website, with a March 29 deadline. Ideally, it explained, the wall should measure 30 feet in height, though designs as low as 18 feet “may be acceptable.” The wall should be impossible to climb over or tunnel under, able to withstand continuous attack by “sledgehammer, car jack, pick axe, chisel, battery operated impact tools, battery operated cutting tools, Oxy/acetylene torch or other similar hand-held tools.” And of course, it should be visually appealing ― at least on the northern side, facing the U.S. According to Evangelista-Ysasaga, word of the various design ideas sparked by the contract travelled fast. “The defense contracting community is very small,” he explained. “And we were hearing some very disturbing design options, some of which would be lethal for those who tried to cross. There was talk of electrified fences, razor wire — that stuff is just horrific. People’s hair and clothing get caught in it. If you’re trying to cross in the middle of the night and get caught in that stuff, it’s a disaster.” Evangelista-Ysasaga declined to name any of the firms behind such design options. “I really don’t want to name them but among those proposing such designs was a Fortune 500 company that makes airplanes,” he claimed. As a result, Evangelista-Ysasaga says he decided to throw his hat in the bidding ring. “We wanted to propose a more humane obstruction,” he expressed. “I didn’t want to have to wake up on a Sunday morning and read a story about a family getting killed trying to cross the border.” PennaGroup’s vision is catered to fit CBP’s basic demands, delivering two relatively straightforward walls with a hint of patriotic flair. The first option is titled a “Solid, Concrete Border Wall,” featuring black wall panels emblazoned with the seal of the United States in recessed concrete and connected with highly polished steel beams. Then there’s the “Other Border Wall” ― constructed from polished, double wire mesh panels, with a six-foot tall anti-climb cap, also emblazoned with a seal. The cap, PennaGroup’s technical team explained in an email to HuffPost, was designed with neoclassical architecture influences in mind, including the federal and Greek revival styles that inspired 18th- and 19th-century design in Washington, D.C. These architectural details, however, would only adorn the side of the wall that faces America. “Design costs money,” Evangelista-Ysasaga noted. Aesthetics are key, especially while designing for a president known to privilege a particular brand of embellished style. Yet it was also crucial, according to PennaGroup’s technical team, that the wall would effectively bar individuals from entry and withstand efforts to destroy it. Although the team emphasized they could not share too many details at this phase in the selection process, PennaGroup’s two potential designs both meet the “threshold requirements” demanded by the government: anti-climb features, anti-tunneling features and anti-tamper features. Both walls measure 30 feet in height. It was also important to Evangelista-Ysasaga that his design take wildlife, hydrology and ecology into account. While prepping their objectives, PennaGroup consulted with nonprofits and wildlife experts including the U.S. Forest Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to make the wall’s impact on its surrounding environment as minimal as possible. They declined to expand on specifics until after Phase II of the selection process. One detail they did expand upon, however, was a tactic to mollify the wall’s encroachment on a bird sanctuary by the Rio Grande River. The tech team stated that forest birds are reluctant to cross gaps of unfamiliar habitat. To ease the transition, PennaGroup’s design “preserves the ‘connection’ between the small patches of existing bird habitats by incorporating eco-friendly ‘wall paths.’” As far as potential wall designs go, PennaGroup’s submissions are relatively straightforward. Others have veered more toward the dystopian, such as DarkPulse Technologies’ idea, which features a wall embedded with sensors that will notify border agents of any unusual motion or meddling with the wall in real time. Crisis Resolution Security Services’ Michael Hari turned somewhat hostile when explaining to The Guardian that the company’s design “is meant to defend what is truly American, and it can start by being beautiful in a way that ordinary American citizens appreciate, rather than by being starkly institutional or by catering to the controversial and perverse tastes of the elites.” Other organizations, however, have used the callout as an opportunity for creativity and resistance, such as JM Design Studio, a team made entirely of women. JM’s vision imagines walls made of 10-meter organ pipes, with space in between for people to pass through. Another JM design option features three million hammocks hanging across the border from available trees, open to all. Perhaps the most innovative response to Trump’s dictum comes from a critical collective proposing to demarcate a new bi-national territory on the border of Mexico and the U.S., co-governed by both, called Otra Nation. The region, dubbed “the worlds’ first continental bi-national socio-ecotone,” would be built by a workforce of half-Mexican and half-American laborers, founded on ideals of energy independence and local economic empowerment. It is highly unlikely these artistic interpretations will be selected by CBP, or even make it to the sought-after Phase II, as they veer from typical wall imagery, whose symbolism has become so enmeshed with Trump’s politics. Also, some of the more radical proposals fail to live up the the structural requirements outlined, instead using the design opportunity to illuminate flaws in the reasoning behind constructing a border wall at all. In the next round of proposals, down-selected firms will be issued a prototype task order, which requires them to build actual prototypes and mockups. Evangelista-Ysasaga is convinced his vision will make it to Phase II. According to the Pew Research Center, 83 percent of Hispanic Americans oppose Trump’s proposition of a border wall, yet 1 in 10 firms bidding for the CBP job are Latino-owned. For some firms, the choice is apolitical ― a job is a job, after all. Evangelista-Ysasaga, however, sees border security as a necessary step in comprehensive immigration reform. “In my lectures and over the last decade, I have figured out the American people are not going to pass a new set of desperately needed immigration laws without enforcing the laws in the books,” he said. “And that means securing our border.” As Evangelista-Ysasaga sees it, the conversation regarding immigration in the U.S. is, like so many other polarizing issues, at a standstill. Those on the left are pushing to open pathways to citizenships for the hardworking, undocumented immigrants already living in this country. Those on the right are fixed on keeping people from crossing the border illegally. Evangelista-Ysasaga believes “there is no conversation in between.” When Evangelista-Ysasaga describes immigrants, he does so in a vocabulary altogether removed from Trump’s rhetoric of Mexicans as “bad hombres,” rapists and criminals. Instead, he discusses their belief in faith, family and hard work. He cites the “across the board” studies that consistently prove immigrants commit crimes with less frequency than American citizens and contribute greatly to the American economy. According to Evangelista-Ysasaga, these immigrants are the people he is most interested in serving. “Bringing the undocumented immigrants in this country out of the shadows is the least we can do,” he said. A border wall, he asserts, does not run contrary to this goal, but will open up the necessary channels to realize it. The problem, he explained, is that when the conversation surrounding border security is co-opted by the extreme right, it becomes wrapped up in language that’s filled with xenophobia and hate. “The left has allowed extremists to hijack the security narrative and turn it into something that it is not,” he said. “I want the U.S. to be free of threats. I want to ensure that threats to the U.S. don’t make it across the border. There is nothing inherently xenophobic about this.” “Now people say, you’re building a wall, you must be a racist, but that’s not true,” he added, comparing the obstruction to locking your door at night even though you don’t hate your neighbors. “Every sovereign nation has a right to say who stays and who goes.” Michelle Mittelstadt of The Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., offered her response to Evangelista-Ysasaga’s position in an email to The Huffington Post. “Countries have a sovereign right to protect their borders and to determine who can and cannot enter,” she wrote. “And fencing makes sense in certain high-crossing areas, and has proven itself to be effective when used in key corridors and in combination with other strategies, as has been the case since the mid-1990s. “But spending $21 billion or more fencing the entirety of the border ― by comparison, the U.S. spent $19 billion last year on _all_ federal immigration enforcement ― would not represent an effective investment of resources and would be a case of fighting the last war.” Lawyer Amelia Miazad, a founding member of the nonprofit organization Wall of Us, agreed. “All nations have different border policies,” she told HuffPost, “almost no nations have walls. The wall is a symbolic rhetorical tool to instill hate and division. There is no rational or responsible correlation between a giant wall and border security. It starts from an assumption that we have people pouring over the borders, which is not accurate.” To this point, Mittelstadt noted that there were 409,000 apprehensions at the border in 2016, around one fourth of what they were in 2000, at 1.64 million. Furthermore she added that 40 to 50 percent of all unauthorized immigrants are visa overstayers, who would not be affected in any way by a wall. In fact, The Migration Policy Institute estimates that only 18 percent of undocumented immigrants have lived in the U.S. for under five years, with 58 percent calling America home for a decade or more. “The whole migration picture from Mexico has been realigned, and huge inflows of illegal Mexican crossers are a thing of the past,” Mittelstadt summarized. Miazad also contested Evangelista-Ysasaga’s assertion that a border wall, at this point, is inevitable. “What the post-election enthusiasm and patriotism by Americans has shown is the only wall the that is going to get built is a wall of resistance,” she said. “The image of a wall is very divisive and it has really unified Americans to voice their desires to have unity, not division.” Both Democrats and Republicans, Miazad explained, have voiced reasonable opposition to the wall. Liberals are skeptical that a border wall will increase border security, opting to build social programs supporting local communities at a fraction of the cost. Likewise many conservatives realize the fiscal irresponsibility of the wall’s massive budget, anticipating that despite Trump’s promise that Mexico will pay for the wall, Americans will end up doing so themselves. “Between the legal opposition, the grassroots opposition and the congressional opposition, there will not be any wall,” Miazad said. Underlying Evangelista-Ysasaga’s claims is the reality that Trump’s border wall is a lucrative business opportunity. When asked about the $21 billion project’s hefty paycheck, he replied, “We’re a for-profit enterprise, but if you take a look at my firm’s website, we have our pick of federal projects. We could have made enough money on other projects without taking on all of this heat.” Moreover, Evangelista-Ysasaga condemned the Latino-owned contractors who refused to submit project ideas. “I don’t understand why you would allow someone who doesn’t care about immigrants to dictate the narrative of immigration,” he said. In response to skepticism about his intentions, Evangelista-Ysasaga recommended a 2006 clip showing him reiterating the importance of immigration reform, which he recently shared on Twitter in light of the controversy his interest in the wall ignited: > Been saying same thing for over a decade. So disheartening that > people think I've changed my message b/c of this opportunity > @shaunrabbfox4 pic.twitter.com/QOs4gytzXU > — The Penna Group (@ThePennaGroup) April 6, 2017 Whether right or wrong, Evangelista-Ysasaga seems genuinely convinced the erection of a border wall will indeed yield progress toward immigration reform. Placing his faith in the Trump administration, he believes that walls will lead to effective border security, which will open up the conversation for the improvements he truly cares about. If the Trump administration does not use the wall as a springboard for the kind of change Evangelista-Ysasaga hopes for and predicts, he intends to make sure they will be held accountable. “I have faith in the American people and their will,” he said. “Nationally, this has got everyone’s attention. I believe the American people will hold the administration’s feet to the fire. Solving one side of the problem is not good enough. And I’ll continue to pound on doors until it happens. Building this wall is going to give me even more of a platform to demand comprehensive immigration reform.” Whether or not this pragmatic optimism will yield the desired result remains to be seen. In the meantime, PennaGroup’s vision embodies an unusual strategy in today’s polarizing political climate: one built on compromise, conversation and, not quite as unconventionally, capital. type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related... + articlesList=58ee9ad7e4b0b9e984891ad3,58e50d4fe4b0f4a923b448b7,58ebd4f2e4b0df7e204453f8 -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The Pappas Post is the personal news and blog site of Gregory C. Pappas and includes curated news of interest to Greeks and those who love Greece, as well as the personal blog posts from Gregory Pappas' personal and professional experiences. The Pappas ...

… .” Euronews: Do you think that Greek debt is sustainable? Valdis Dombrovskis … programme. Indeed we already saw Greece last year returning to economic … . Developments last year unfortunately derailed Greece from this trajectory and if …

ATHENS – Greek Premier and Radical Left SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said his reneging on anti-austerity promises to get more monies from a third bailout […] The post Tsipras Defends New Austerity Deal, Says It’s Greece’s “Golden Opportunity” appeared first on The National Herald.

Babe Laufenberg, Dallas Cowboys radio color analyst and former NFL quarterback, answers your questions about the team each week. Here are some highlights from his recent mailbag: Do you think Dallas will miss Church, Claiborne or Carr most? Laufenberg: I ...

European Taekwondo Union (ETU) President Sakis Pragalos and secretary general Michail Fysentzidis awarded Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos with the governing body's gold medallion at a meeting in Athens. The two ETU officials met with Pavlopoulos, who ...

The Greek Freak capped off his remarkable season this year by breaking a few records. Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with career highs in every major stat: points (22.9), rebounds (8.8), assists (5.4), steals (1.6) and blocks (1.9). He also is the Bucks ...

A Turkish military reconnaissance aircraft violated Greek airspace for a long time on Thursday. Turkish aircraft illegally entered Greek airspace for 38 times flying over the northeast, central and southeast Aegean Sea, with two flying in formation and two ...

Currently at Tech, first-semester freshmen are the prime focus of Greek organizations during recruitment. These students are just beginning college and are experiencing academic and social changes in their transitions. They also have the least information ...

Greek expat hopes his photo archive will help raise awareness about the value of the centuries-old trees in Laconia region In the region of Laconia, located at the southernmost tip of mainland Greece, ancient olive trees grow from sections of ancient ...

You probably feel like you need a vacation right now — don't we all? Well, how about Greece? Yes, sure, it's a Tuesday and you have work tomorrow, but let's go anyway. A flight tonight is probably out of the question, so escape to Greece via your kitchen ...

Demand for new loans has virtually ground to a standstill owing to the continued stagnation of the Greek economy which has resulted from the uncertainty generated by the endless negotiations with the country’s creditors and delays in the implementation ...

The draft of the staff level agreement between Greece and its creditors provides that the IMF will have complete oversight of the Greek GDP surpluses, as protothema.gr is in the position to know. The agreement, which was forwarded to the Greek government ...

The IMF can play a support role in the Greek programme, stated US Department of Treasury official adding that he remains in close cooperation with his European friends on the Greek issue and expects from the Europeans to assist Greece. "We will approach ...

In the village of Ritsona, 50 miles north of Athens, razor wire dissects vineyards on a hillside. Inside the perimeter, crumbling concrete buildings and open fields, long abandoned by the Greek military, are now home to 700 refugees — some of the 50,000 ...

The call for the immediate arrest of the rebel abbot of Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos has been suspended by a Thessaloniki appeals court, pending his appeal. In January, Monk Methodios was sentenced by a Greek court in northern Athens in absentia to 20 years in prison. He was found guilty and sentenced following events […]

Greek Supreme Court prosecutor Vasilis Pliotas issued a circular on Thursday requesting first instance prosecutors to strictly implement the legislation for the protection of animals. Pliotas told his colleagues they should intervene in every case involving the torturing of animals and ensure that provisions concerning their health, protection from exploitation, abuse and torture are fully […]

On today’s edition of “The Doctors”, the doctors discuss a great way to pump up and improve your greek yoghurt with natural ingredients that you may already have with you in your own home kitchen, creating a healthy, and delicious greek yoghurt.

ATHENS – Greece’s crushing economic and austerity crisis is being left to a small group of taxpayers to bear with 10 percent of taxpayers force […] The post Ten Percent of Greek Taxpayers Pay 60% of Total Tax Intake appeared first on The National Herald.

By Eleni Sakellis The gifted poet Stephanos Papadopoulos was born in North Carolina to a Greek father and American mother and was raised in Paris […] The post Greek-American Poet Stephanos Papadopoulos Talks to TNH appeared first on The National Herald.

Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo returns to the playoffs in Toronto on Saturday afternoon. Except in Greece, where it’ll already be very early Sunday morning. They […] The post Giannis and Others Set Big International Interest in the NBA Playoffs appeared first on The National Herald.

Over the past seven years, Greek-Australian Ellen Koutsodimitropoulos along with her family have raised some $31,000 for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. Every year they hold fundraisers at the Greek Community of Broadmeadows and ...

We call it Tahinopita but it has little to do with pie. It is cake. A cake made with tahini, the sesame paste, that substitutes any kind of fat. It is egg-free, it contains no oil or butter or any dairy product. It is nutritious and very popular during the Greek Orthodox Lent, especially during … The post My Perfect Greek …Tahinopita – the absolute vegan cake of Great Lent appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

The accompanying tables present the latest economic data and five-year forecast scenario for the country's banking system. Also included is SWOT analysis of the commercial banking system as a whole. The Greece Commercial Banking Report has been researched ...

This week the Greek government announced that it will be tackling the problem of corruption in the health care system in Greece by introducing the creation of an electronic, or e-platform to monitor the “envelope” system. This is the first time that ...

Demy (25) is a successful Greek pop singer. She first came to fame in 2011 and has released two albums and a number of singles. Demy was internally selected for Eurovision by broadcaster ERT. Through a national final where Demy performed three different ...

After this past week’s semi-final games for the Greek Cup, AEK and Panathinaikos have advanced into the lead. In a match against Olympiakos, AEK won a 2-1 victory on Thursday at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium. AEK celebrated its 93rd birthday by scoring ...

Theo Yianni’s Restaurant offers authentic Greek and American cuisine and much more, at their all new location at 322 American Way, Weirton, just off the Colliers Way exit. Theo Yianni’s provides the best homemade Greek food at the best price, according ...

Crock Pot Greek Chicken Thighs are moist, tender and delicious. I don’t know why boneless chicken thighs aren’t as popular as chicken breasts in my neck of the woods. They’ve got a bad reputation for no good reason as far as I am concerned.

Every year, Easter celebration takes us from the shore of fasting and repentance to the haven of the joy of being with the Living God, Cardinal Lucian, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, writes in his Pastoral Letter to the clergy and faithful on the occasion of Holy Easter. “Like every year, Lent has […]

… Dumfries woman who died in Crete hope her case will be … and Commonwealth Office and the Greek authorities which sparked progress. Progress … and Commonwealth Office and the Greek authorities moved things along again …

Refusal by the Greek government to pay an American company 40 million euros ($42.47 million) for a 2004 Olympics security system has put Greek assets […] The post Greek Assets in US Could be Seized over Olympics Security System Payment appeared first on The National Herald.

Three bailouts of 326 billion euros ($346.1 billion) in three bailouts combined with crushing austerity measures haven’t saved the Greek economy and there is a […] The post Peterson Institute, Bloomberg’s, IMF’s Lagarde Push Greek Debt Relief appeared first on The National Herald.

Greek Orthodox priests take part in a Good Friday reenactment of Christ being taken down from the crucifix, at the Pendeli Monastery, near Athens, at the Pendeli Monastery, near Athens, on Friday, April 14, 2017. Orthodox Christians around the world ...